Seven quotes from actor Nikolai Gubenko, who turned 75

Daughter about father

This is what Ekaterina Dvigubskaya, director, actress and writer, writes about her father. My father was only seventy years old. No one knows until the end why he did this. And ten years before that, Catherine wrote a story where she described everything that would happen to Nikolai Dvigubsky over the last ten years, right up to his death.

In recent years, Nikolai Lvovich Dvigubsky, a production designer, painted such canvases that made you want to cry. The artist suffered from cancer, but it is known that he recovered from it. He depicted a mother and child, a person’s repentance, the cry of a sick person, and so on, and the canvases were huge, not for sale. Apparently, the artist drove himself into unbearable suffering that devoured him from the inside, and could not stand such a life. There is an opinion that the artist did not want to grow old, be weak, or be a burden for someone. Deciding that he had done everything he could in this world, Nikolai Dvigubsky took his own life.

Biography[edit | edit code]

Nikolai Dvigubsky was born in France into a family of Russian emigrants. Marina's cousin Vladi. Graduated from the French Academy of Arts. [ source not specified 1554 days

]

In 1956 he moved to the USSR with his parents. Graduated from VGIK with a degree in production design.

At the institute, he became closely acquainted with Andrei Konchalovsky, who was very interested in the West.

He worked on films by Konchalovsky, Andrei Tarkovsky, Yuli Raizman, Gleb Panfilov.

Personal life[edit | edit code]

In the USSR he was married three times: to actresses Zhanna Bolotova (while studying at VGIK), Irina Kupchenko (after filming “The Noble Nest”, 1969) and Natalya Arinbasarova, 1970. The latter gave birth to a daughter, Ekaterina Dvigubskaya (born 1974), who became actress, film director and writer.

In 1980, Dvigubsky returned to Paris and married a French woman named Genevieve for the fourth time.

He painted in his castle in Normandy.

He committed suicide (shot himself) on October 25, 2008.

Dvigubsky Nikolai Lvovich. Biography: origins

He was born on November 18, 1936 in Paris. It is interesting that the real name of Nikolai’s father is Biryukov, and not Dvigubsky. His mother Galina Olegovna fled to Paris after the 1917 revolution with Dvigubsky, a white officer who became her husband. Living in the capital of France and having fathered five children, Dvigubsky cheated on his wife, and she kicked him out of the house without giving him a divorce.

Having later married Lev Nikolaevich Biryukov, Galina Olegovna did not change her last name, and all her children bear the last name of Dvigubsky. Being a noblewoman, Galina Olegovna was not a white-handed woman, she began sewing dresses to order and soon advanced along this path - she became a dressmaker for Marlene Dietrich and other famous people of that time. Nikolai's father, Lev Nikolaevich, was engaged in auto repair; they lived in a spacious four-room apartment and had four cars.

During World War II, Lev Nikolaevich joined the Resistance and fought against the Nazis, and Galina Olegovna found Russian girls everywhere who were captured and helped them return to their homeland, not knowing that they were immediately exiled to camps.

Sergey Barkhin

Artist Nikolai Dvigubsky - Russian French

Someone else would have to write these pages.
And I have to remember, almost a stranger. It’s been a year since he’s been gone, and no one has said or written anything, and it’s wrong and pathetic.

It was as if the person never existed. But he was not just a famous handsome man, but an amazing theater and film artist, and more recently a painter, a real French painter.

Why do I dare? I just dreamed about him the third day. Young, fashionable, handsome and talented Nikolai-Kolya, Nikolai Lvovich Dvigubsky,

I barely knew him, but I knew him nonetheless. But he also had close friends. Artists, actors, directors. However, I’m not at all sure that it was easy for Kolya himself to be friends with anyone, much less anyone else. However, he was not arrogant or uncriminal. Rather, he seemed wary. Perhaps he needed to be accompanied by the local Virgil in our hell. But Konchalovsky, obviously, could not play such a role. And now it is clear that others perceived it as something distant, Parisian and incomprehensible. And it always seemed that he and we had almost nothing to talk about.

Many years ago, quite a lot, around 1957-58, I saw HIM for the first time. Very noticeably for Moscow residents, he walked along Pushkin Square from the theater restaurant to the yet non-existent Rossiya cinema. By that time, I already knew or had just met many of the first dudes of Moscow. I remember very well Felix Solovyov, Kostya Stramentov, Alik Ryabsky, Vadim Milshtein, Andron Mikhalkov of those times. These were Moscow dandies, jazz fans and playboys - the adornment of Moscow.

And suddenly I see something new. I see a tall, slender and broad-shouldered young man with a dark and serious face. A well-cut brunette in nineteen centimeter short pipes and an untucked blue-Veronese check shirt. And the shoes! One could only dream of such things back then. I admired it and remembered it, as if I had sketched it forever. There was something French about him, not civilian, already fashionable at that time, and he was reminiscent of the French artists Yves Montand or Gerard Philippe. Even now I see him striving, but at the same time somehow relaxed, walking along the sidewalk of Pushkin Square.

Many years have passed, probably 12-15 years. I had already given up the profession of “architect” and began to try myself as a theater artist. We worked together with Misha Anikst. At the Sovremennik Theater they performed first “The Ballad of the Sad Tavern” by E. Albee, then “The Art of Comedy” by E. De Filippo. Based on our sketches and models, the scenery was made in kind in the workshops of the Moscow Art Theater, the best in Moscow. There, in a picturesque hall, Tatyana Borisovna Serebryakova, the daughter of the great Russian-Parisian Zinaida Serebryakova, reigned, a daughter who remained or was stuck in her homeland. Somehow, in the hands of Tatyana Borisovna and on the tables of that huge hall where the picturesque backdrops are made in kind, I see several, rather many - five or six amazing sketches-pictures already framed and under glass, made, as it seems to me, by Claude Laurent or Chardin. In any case, for me they look more interesting, better than the sketches of Benoit or Williams. Shocked, I ask Tatyana Borisovna: “What is this?” “And this,” she says, “we are making sketches for the play “Cola Breugnon” by a Russian artist who came from Paris. His name is Nikolai Dvigubsky, and he studied with us at the film institute, VGIK, but before that, they say, he graduated from the Paris Academy of Arts.” Never before or after have I seen such beautiful, diligent sketches-paintings, seemingly painted by the brush of Pieter de Hooch or even Poussin. These were watercolors with gouache. Of course, the unknown bright and noble Lefrancs. I remember a sketch of the backdrop “Workshop, house of Cola Brugnon”, a beautiful super-curtain with the rays of the classic Masonic sun and clouds of the 17th-18th centuries, and some other sketches. I was delighted and even went to the performance. Tatyana Borisovna and her assistants Nona Goryunova and Zhora Krutinsky created the backdrops beautifully. The drawn details, furniture, workbench, three-legged stools were repeated on the scene board. Dim light and faded performance that looked like a child's one. Some illustrations by Edmont Dulac on stage.

In those days, the theater society held interesting annual exhibitions of theatrical sketches and even models of actual Moscow performances. Among the many beautiful ones, sometimes the most noticeable were always the large and masterful sketches of Nikolai Dvigubsky, as well as Serebrovsky and Messerer and others. Having seen Dvigubsky’s sketch, I even specifically ran to the Vakhtangov Theater to watch Schlesinger’s Molière’s “The Bourgeois in the Nobility.” An open red rug and a complex composition of machines and stairs made of gold and black ornaments. In the sketch and even on stage it was all simply wonderful, and the costumes were drawn as if they were straight out of the Comedy Française museum. But everything in the performance was ordinary and not very interesting, not lively. Perhaps the quality of the scenery and the meticulous historical, brightly colored grotesque costumes together overwhelmed the artists and the theater in general. Then I saw some more lopsided (at that time it was fashionable) designs for some Western performance at the Mossovet Theater. But only sketches, not a performance.

By that time, I already knew or had simply seen at least once most of the artists from the group that came out of the Film Institute. These were Serebrovsky, Boym, Alimov, Romadin. But I didn’t see Dvigubsky. Then the sensational film of the same Andrei Mikhalkov, at that moment already Konchalovsky, comes out. This is “The Noble Nest” according to Turgenev, and there were three, even four artists there at once. Apparently the Turgenev estate was so important and difficult for Konchalovsky. I don’t know how Boym, Romadin and Dvigubsky divided the work, but Rustam Khamdamov made the hats, and maybe even the costumes. They said that this Dvigubsky played some kind of French duke in the movie itself, but I didn’t see or remember anyone except Gubenko.

At one of the All-Union exhibitions I saw too diligent sketches - paintings by Dvigubsky for Cyrano de Bergerac (I think). I didn’t like it so much anymore, but the artist and personality intrigued me extremely. All the famous theater artists visited theater exhibitions, openings and discussions in the theater society many times, and one could talk to them, but Dvigubsky, this French perfectionist, did not appear even once. It was as if all this did not interest him at all.

And yet, gradually, briefly, looking out and looking at Dvigubsky in various random places, I recognized in him that then still young fashionista and handsome man, seen on the street and returned from France, from Paris, whose sketches I had once admired in the workshops of the Moscow Art Theater .

Much earlier, I studied at our invaluable Institute of Architecture, a year older than another talented “Russian Frenchman” Sasha, Alexander Alekseevich Karvovsky. A most talented architect, then a brilliant translator of poetry and prose from Russian into French. Yes, he was a poet himself, and I remember reading and singing his free verse poems in some collection. Dear Sasha crashed to death in a car. But before that, I experienced more blows that we never dreamed of.

When I got to know Dvigubsky a little, I, like a gift, told him about my acquaintance, maybe even comrade, Karvovsky, who, they say, is also French. Dvigubsky very angrily and even irritably remembered my friend, as if whose family had somehow participated in the vain return of the Dvigubskys. So Sasha Karvovsky did not bring me closer to Dvigubsky.

During that short conversation for a possible rapprochement with Dvigubsky, two properties of the wonderful Russian-French artist were revealed to me. Firstly, he was somehow very sadly dissatisfied with returning to Russia, which is understandable to many, but not everyone. I didn’t feel this at all with Karvovsky, but it was he who ended up directly in the Soviet army after his arrival. For the young French poet, this was tantamount to a camp, the Stalinist camp of Nikita Krivoshein. But Sasha endured everything meekly. Secondly, it seemed to me that Kolya had some difficulties speaking and thinking in Russian. Although, of course, he spoke Russian in Paris, although he thought, perhaps, only in French.

Nevertheless, our correspondence acquaintance continued. At the next theatrical exhibition I saw Dvigubsky’s stunning “country” sketches for Tarkovsky’s “Mirror”. Small, careful sketches, which artists did not make either in the theater or in cinema at that time, opened up some other possibilities for influencing the director. I remember perfectly, straight from the nineteenth century, a sketch written where several raspberries fell out of a basket onto a village table and milk spilled from a jug, and two or three separate drops lay bulging on the table and napkin. It was brilliant. There was such a shot in the film of a brilliant, but capricious and proud director. But it is very rare that such an exquisite proposal from an artist finds a place in a film by a director who is thinking about something completely different.

Misha Romadin once told how long and carefully, with his own hands, Nikolai Lvovich prepared the texture of a door at a film studio. I don't remember which movie it was for. Maybe for “Mirror” too.

And I also saw masterful monochrome sketches from life for Konchalovsky’s “Siberiada”.

Finally, in 1980, I was included in the creative group at Dzintari in my long-time native Latvia. Kolya was also in the group. It was winter. He was wearing a Chinese down jacket. There he painted meticulous small-sized paintings in oils with many foreign devices, even with a grinder. From what the secretive Kolya showed me, I remembered something about the theme of Baltic pines, sidewalks and brick wall-fences, painted from above, as if from a second-floor window and in fragments. It looked like abstract architectural compositions in axonometry. All this in the evening, even at night, in the light of lanterns that are invisible to the viewer of the picture. Everything I saw was completely empty, without any people, sad, cold and gloomy.

Unfortunately, we didn't get close at all. It seemed that he did not need new and not promising acquaintances. However, we talked about Montaigne and La Rochefoucauld, whom he brought with him. Kolya said that when any questions arise, he always turns to philosophers and receives a practical answer. Much later, I also tried to get answers and not only from La Rochefoucauld, but nothing good came of it. At the bar, he most often drank real Portuguese port, which somehow ended up in Soviet Latvia. All the other artists, due to lack of culture, had no sentiments about this port. And Kolya rightly argued that this is the most profitable drink, since in Paris it is expensive, but here in the Union it was a little more expensive than our tearful purple fake port wine. The rest drank either vodka or champagne, releasing gas from it as much as possible.

On this two-month trip, Dvigubsky was somehow painfully lonely and still different from all other Soviet artists, and he could not find a close soul here. On this trip, Kolya, trying to learn to play Russian billiards, got into such hilariously graceful poses that it caused everyone to laugh shyly. Shy because, of course, everyone respected him as an artist. It turns out that before going to study at the Ecole de Bazar in Paris, he was wondering whether he should go to ballet, choosing between Diaghilev’s Russian star professions.

Then we met several times in Savely Yamshchikov’s workshop on Prechistinka in the company of Romadin, Alimov and Bori Messerer. Again Kolya was shyly silent, and kept getting ready to go to some countess and her sons in France. And somehow he kept inviting Borya to come with him. And at that moment of Soviet darkness, I still could have left, I still wanted to. And perhaps during one of these drinks and chatting at Savely’s, Kolya invited me to come to his workshop, which was located in the very center of Moscow, somewhere in an alley near Mayakovsky Square in a separate house. It turned out to be one large, even very large, white room with dark wooden shutters, it seems even from two of its long walls, since it seems that there were three or even four windows on both sides. In the middle there was a large long table, and on the end wall hung a large silk batik-made French Napoleonic banner, begged by Dvigubsky after filming Bondarchuk’s film “The Battle of Waterloo” or even from “War and Peace.” On the clean table there was a bottle of Bordeaux, of course, and two glasses. No sign of the artist's studio. Right in the hall of the Pope's Avignon Palace. Beautiful - shutters, banner and red wine on the table. We talked about nothing. And it was sad, and I felt sorry for such a lonely gentleman who was not understood in Moscow and did not understand our life.

NIKOLAI DVIGUBSKY left and left, returning to France, where he was born. And I don’t even know what to call him - an emigrant, an immigrant, a migrant or a re-emigrant, or maybe just the poor son of an emigrant with love for his homeland. And no one knows where his homeland is, and he himself did not know. In any case, all the departures and arrivals did not play a good role in his life.

There in Europe, Dvigubsky made the scenery and costumes for Tarkovsky's famous production in London at Coven Garden of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov. After Tarkovsky’s death, the play was performed on the stage of the Kirov, now Mariinsky Theater, and I even saw it and heard someone’s praise about it on Radio Soboda.

Was he happy? With its problems of two languages, loneliness, feelings of vain actions, vain love and hope. Whether my hero became happy there in France, dear to his heart, in “his” castle, with his countess, I don’t know.

Sometimes someone in Moscow would utter some sarcastic phrase about his life in France.

Already in the nineties, I made (participated in) a cartoon in Paris about a Russian general in 1812 and his dog, which was initially called Bonya Bonaparte, based on a script by Tonino Guerra. And then one day I went from Paris to visit Lenochka, Vasya and Dima Rakitin, who lived in a village house next to a Templar elm tree near Gisors. There I again heard with joy about Dvigubsky. Kolya came from his castle to the Rakitins’ “castle”. And Vasya spoke many times about his painting and repeated about it - “quality”. Vasya even compared the quality of Dvigubsky with the quality of Shvartsman, considering perhaps this quality to be the main difference between Shvartsman. This was said by Vasya on purpose, because he knew my love and admiration for Shvartsman’s hieratures.

I was very happy for some success of Nikolai Lvovich Dvigubsky, glad, since at more than sixty years old I was already devoid of any envy.

And suddenly the news was like a shot. I refused to believe for a long time, because all sorts of lies came from abroad. But then everything was confirmed repeatedly.

And I thought that a can of ether had burst, like in Chaika. But no, NIKOLAI LVOVICH SHOT himself!

And I became sad and thought about the Motherland, which does not love and tortures its sons, who are prodigal against their will. And when I say Motherland, I think not only about Russia, but also about France. And I also think about the sorrows of emigration, and the difficulties of understanding anything in someone else's life. And that in someone else’s life, and even in your own happy life, there can be any unexpected tragedy. I remembered the last years of Casanova, exiled to a foreign land, his suffering.

I mourn the death and sadness of Dvigubsky, I sympathize with his daughter and other people close to him.

Since I did not see any obituary or reminiscence in our press. I give my text into the hands of my friend Dima Radionov to the Scene magazine with the hope of publication along with as many reproductions as possible.

August 20 – September 27, 2009 S. Barkhin

Homecoming

After Stalin’s death, the artist’s parents decided to return to their historical homeland, as they suffered greatly from nostalgia. Dvigubsky Nikolai Lvochich, the only one of the children who had not reached adulthood (the rest refused to go), arrived with his father and mother in Moscow.

The living conditions in the capital of the Soviets had a depressing effect on the young man; in addition, it was difficult for him to get used to the language. Although Nikolai spoke Russian, he still thought purely in French. Life for the new arrivals turned out to be so difficult, the neighbors in the communal apartment behaved so defiantly and obscenely that Galina Olegovna went to the police and said that if they were not welcome here, then it was better to immediately put them against the wall.

The policeman turned out to be a conscientious man and “pacified” the neighbors. The woman did not sit idle in Moscow either, and soon rumors about the wonderful dressmaker spread throughout the capital. She began to dress prominent political figures and film actresses. The clients of Nikolai Lvovich’s mother included the wives of Gromyko and Kosygin, as well as the film star of the Soviet Union Lyubov Orlova.

Thanks to her efforts, the family soon received a modest but separate two-room apartment on Leninsky Prospekt.

Childhood and youth in France

Nikolai Lvovich Dvigubsky was born in 1936 in France into an emigrant family. At one time, not only parents, but also many of Dvigubsky’s relatives moved to this European country. Thus, the future artist’s cousin was the famous French actress of Russian origin, the wife of Vladimir Vysotsky, Marina Vladi. In his youth, Dvigubsky even thought about becoming a ballet dancer, like Vladi’s mother. But it didn’t work out.

After graduating from school, Nikolai entered the Higher School of Fine Arts, whose graduates included many famous artists from France, Germany, Great Britain and other countries in Europe and the world. However, at that time Dvigubsky failed to make a career in the west. In 1956, his parents decided to return to the Union.

New acquaintances

In France, Nikolai Lvovich Dvigubsky studied at the Paris National Higher School of Fine Arts, his teacher was Paul Colin. If it weren’t for his parents’ love for his homeland, he would probably have climbed the career ladder in France, but fate led him along a different path.

In the Soviet Union, Nikolai entered VGIK, where he met the best young people of that time. These included Felix Solovyov, Konstantin Stramentov, Alik Ryabsky, Andron Konchalovsky and others. Nikolai Dvigubsky himself did not really become close to anyone. For many, he became the personification of France - something beautiful and inaccessible. Remembering the artist, many note his manner of dressing and behavior. In the USSR, only two or three people could afford such a jacket and shoes as Dvigubsky had.

Links

• Nikolay Dvigubsky on Andrei Konchalovsky's website
• Nikolai Dvigubsky at Rodovode. Tree of ancestors and descendants
• Anna Veligzhanina. “How Bolotova, Kupchenko and Arinbasarova married the same man”

Dvigubsky Nikolay Lvovich, Dvigubsky Nikolay Lvovich Boris

Dvigubsky Nikolai Lvovich: personal life

Nikolai Lvovich became a little closer to Andron Konchalovsky-Mikhalkov, he liked the same girls as Konchalovsky, and Zhanna Bolotova became his first wife. They met at Andron's party; the actress herself was in love with the irresistible dandy Konchalovsky, but he never thought of proposing to her. Therefore, when Nikolai Dvigubsky seriously approached the girl and offered her his hand and heart, she did not refuse.

However, their marriage was not based on love and lasted less than a year. Then Nikolai proposed to Irina Kupchenko, who starred in “The Noble Nest” by Andron Konchalovsky. The actress, having become a victim of a loving director, suffered on the set, and in order to console her, Nikolai Dvigubsky jokingly suggested that she go to the registry office, to which the actress, also jokingly, agreed.

Jokes aside, the marriage turned out to be real, although it also did not last long; Kupchekno later married Vasily Lanovoy, and Dvigubsky finally married actress Natalya Arinbasarova for a long time (as much as fifteen years).

And again fate plays a joke on the artist. Natalya was the first wife of Andron Konchalovsky, and they had a son, Yegor. Nikolai raised the boy as his own, Natalya gave birth to a daughter, Ekaterina, in their joint marriage, who became a ray of light for him in a dark kingdom.

Wives

When the relationship between Irina Kupchenko and Andrei Konchalovsky faded away, the actress became interested in Nikolai Dvigubsky, who was busy filming the drama of the mentioned director “The Nest of Nobles”. Kupchenko played the main role in the same film. To those around them, Kupchenko and Dvigubsky seemed like a happy couple, but a year later, for unknown reasons, they separated. And then Natalya Arinbasarova appeared in the artist’s life. However, he also divorced his third wife, who in 1974 gave birth to Dvigubsky’s daughter Ekaterina.

Filmography of Nikolai Dvigubsky

Nikolai Dvigubsky’s filmography includes a small number of films, including cartoons, where he acted as an artist.

• “The Road to the Festival” is a film by Renita and Yuri Grigovyev.
• “The Noble Nest” is a film by Konchalovsky.
• "Uncle Vanya" is a film by Konchalovsky.
• "Courtesy visit"
• "Mirror" is a film by Tarkovsky.
• "Siberiada" is a film by Konchalovsky.
• “Vassa” is a film by Gleb Panfilov.
• "The Wings of Uncle Marabou" is an animated film.
• "The Legend of Grieg" is an animated film.
• "Today's Birthday" is an animated film.

“Siberiada” (a film by Konchalovsky) brought Nikolai Dvigubsky together with another artist, Adabashyan, and in the films “The Road to the Festival” and “The Noble Nest” he managed to play small roles.

Movies

Immediately after graduating from VGIK, Gubenko began acting in films. The first work in which he appeared to the Soviet audience was Marlen Khutsiev’s film “Ilyich’s Outpost,” released in 1964. This is a lyrical story about the younger generation beginning to live during the period of the “Khrushchev Thaw”. The truncated film was released under the title “I’m Twenty Years Old,” and the premiere of the “full version” (the author’s version) took place in 1988.

Nikolai Gubenko in the film "Ilyich's Outpost"

Judging by the photo, in his youth the actor had an ordinary appearance and therefore he was invited to play a simple Russian boy named Kolya Fokin. After this there were episodic roles in the films “An Inch of Earth”, “Where the Storks Fly”, “While the Front is on the Defensive”.

In 1967, the film “No Password Required” was released. Gubenko played Colonel Blucher. This role became the most famous work of the artist of the 60s. The partners in the film were Anastasia Voznesenskaya, Rodion Nakhapetov, Vasily Lanovoy, Igor Dmitriev and others. Despite the fact that the film did not gain great fame, Gubenko received the 3rd prize for best actor at the 3rd All-Union Film Festival in Leningrad

Nikolai Gubenko in the film “No Password Needed”

In the late 60s, several more films appeared in which the actor played various roles, showing himself to be a true professional. These include “Golden Gate”, “Director”, “Noble Nest” and a number of others. In 1971, Gubenko the director shot his first film, “The Makarov Brothers.” Soon after this - “If you want to be happy” and “A soldier came from the front.” For the latter, he received the Lenin Komsomol Prize and the State Prize of the RSFSR. Vasiliev brothers.

In parallel with his directing activities, Gubenko continues to act in films himself. The year 1975 was marked by a role in the film by Sergei Bondarchuk based on the novel by Mikhail Sholokhov “They Fought for the Motherland.” His partners on the set were Vasily Shukshin, Nonna Mordyukova, Yuri Nikulin, Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Vyacheslav Tikhonov.

Nikolai Gubenko in the film “They Fought for the Motherland”

Another significant work in the artist’s filmography is the film “Wounded Man.” Here he acted in a triple role - director, screenwriter and actor. The movie is 50% biographical. It tells the life and fate of orphanage children of the post-war period.

What is shown is not the biography of one individual person, but the history of an entire generation that was left orphaned during the war. The work is so piercing and sincere that even after years it does not leave anyone indifferent.

Nikolai Gubenko in the film "Wounded Man"

In 1980, Gubenko made the film “From the Life of Vacationers.” He gives the main role in the melodrama to his wife, Zhanna Bolotova. Rolan Bykov, Regimantas Adomaitis, Lidiya Fedoseeva-Shukshina also played here.

In 1988, Nikolai Nikolaevich directed and wrote the film “Forbidden Zone” based on real events. The film tells about the consequences of a devastating storm in the Ivanovo region in 1984.

In the government service

In 1987, Gubenko joined the Communist Party, he became the seventh and last Minister of Culture of the Soviet country (1989-1991). After Russia declared independence, he continued his political career.

He was twice elected from the Communist Party to the State Duma (1995-2003), where he was first deputy and then chairman of the Committee on Culture and Tourism.

Since 2009, Gubenko has been deputy chairman of the Moscow City Duma.

Master of Cinema

By that time, he had not acted in films for two years, so he began to take on any roles, even episodic ones, but still, in the creative biography of Nikolai Gubenko, they were mainly the main ones. In 1967, he was offered three big roles, and the image of Blucher in the adventure film “No Password Needed” received critical acclaim. Then there were the films “The Noble Nest”, “Golden Gate” and “The Director”. The latter talked about the director of an automobile plant, whose prototype was I. Likhachev, the founder of ZIL.

In 1975, Gubenko starred in cult Soviet films: “They Fought for the Motherland” by Sergei Bondarchuk and “I Ask for the Word” by Gleb Panfilov.

The director's biography of Nikolai Nikolaevich Gubenko included six films. The best of them was recognized by critics as the film “Wounded Animals” about the life of orphanages in the post-war period. He himself played one of the teachers named Krivoruchko, whose prototype was one of his teachers at the Suvorov School. The film collected many international awards.

From 1987 to 1989, he was the chief director of the Taganka Theater, restored the most popular performances and contributed to the return of Yuri Lyubimov. However, the two directors became cramped in the same troupe, and the relationship between teacher and student deteriorated greatly. It got to the point that Gubenko was not allowed into the theater, although he played the main role in the play “Vysotsky”. In October 1992, Gubenko created the Taganka Actors' Commonwealth Theater.